Phase 2: SYOC
by Redhead and proud
Summary: The FAYZ is back again. In the isolated costal town of Leighton, the adults have disappeared and the kids are trapped. It's Perido Beach all over again, but in Australia. SYOC *CLOSED*.
1. Prologue and OC form

The men working at the meteor crash site had started very early in the morning. They hadn't even turned on any of the equipment and half of their workforce was still asleep. But they had very clear orders that they needed to excavate the crash site as quickly as possible.

There was a main office where their supervisor would work and then there were sleeping quarters. Most of the equipment was kept near the sleeping quarters and would be watched every night by alternating night guards, they couldn't afford to have any of it stolen. The entire set-up had only recently been put in place.

Three men wearing orange safety jackets and construction site helmets moved towards the centre of all the commotion. It was a meteor that had crashed in the middle of the Australian bush. It looked like an ordinary meteor but the crash site wasn't what you see in the movies. The meteor had simply lodged itself into the ground.

"I still don't know why we haven't hauled this thing out of here yet," the first man said as he looked at the meteor. "There's a town about 16 kilometres from here. What if someone wanders out into the bush and finds this thing?"

"Mate, I don't know. Honestly I reckon it's the kangaroos we need to watch out for," the second man adjusted his helmet which was far too big for his head.

The first man shrugged his shoulders. "Well come on then. Let's crack it open."

"Shouldn't we wait for everyone else?" the third man asked.

"Nah," the second man replied. "The quicker we're done with this thing, then the quicker we get out of here."

"I don't think this is a good idea," the third man looked at the meteor.

The first man shoved him forward. "Well then why don't you have the first go at it."

The third man inched forward and took the power saw that the second man handed him and put his safety goggles on. He bent down in front of the meteor while the other two men urged him on. There was a whirring as the power saw started slicing against the hard rock.

Without warning an entire slab of rock dropped off and hit the ground near the man's feet. This exposed the centre of the meteor. He looked inside and was hit with a glowing green light. The other two men watched curiously. Then the third man started screaming in fear.

He stood up and ran still screaming in the opposite direction. "It's going to kill us all! It's coming! Run!"

The remaining two men looked at each other, and then looked at the meteor. The green glowing light was growing stronger and stronger. More workers were coming out of the sleeping quarters. The Supervisor came out of his office still holding a cup of coffee, which he spilled over himself as he stared at the meteor in shock.

Then the light peaked and shot out across the whole construction site.

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**So I had this brilliant idea for a Gone story but then I realised I had to come up with a whole lot of characters and I'm lazy so I just decided to make this an SYOC. **

**About the story. It's set in Australia in a small town called Leighton near the coast. There are three different schools, one primary school (Kindergarten to Year 6) and two high schools (Year 7 to Year 12). **

**The primary school is called Leighton Primary, it's simply a public school. **

**Then there's Leighton High School which is a public school where all the ordinary kids go.**

**Finally you have Combe Valley Grammar School which is a private school, it's sort of like Coates but instead of it being a school for troubled kids it's a private school for rich and snobby kids.**

**Now there are some rules with submitting your OC.**

**No submitting any characters age 15 or over, I think you all should know this.**

**You can submit as many characters as you want.**

**There are kids with powers in this story but please remember that I need normal kids as well so don't everyone submit kids with powers.**

**Please fill out the OC form below and submit it either in a review or a PM.**

**Name:  
Nickname (Optional):  
Age:  
Gender:  
Appearance:  
Personality:  
Skills:  
Likes and Dislikes:  
Normal or Mutant:  
Power (If any):  
School (Leighton Primary, Leighton High or Combe Valley Grammar):  
Other:**


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hey guys, thanks for the support and all of the submitted characters. I am pleased to announce that every single submitted OC will have a part in the story. There are also 6 original characters created by me that are featuring in the story. There have been a couple of minor changes made to one or two characters, mostly with powers. For some weird reason force fields are highly popular. Anyway here's the first chapter ladies and gentlemen. I should note that the kids that attend Combe Valley Grammar are not in this chapter. We will start at Leighton High School.**

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"Hey Mallory, have we got a science test today?"

Anders Minkin sat in his Maths classroom listening to his maths teacher Mr Shaun talk about algebra. Sitting at the desk in front of him was Mallory Davidson, a girl in his class he only ever talked to occasionally. She had black curly hair and was just a bit shorter than Anders. He did think she was a little bit cute but she wasn't exactly his type.

Mallory turned around in her chair and faced him, Anders noticed she had headphones in both ears and was listening to music. "Um," she thought to herself for a minute and took out one headphone. "No I don't think so. I'm pretty sure our test is next week."

"Cool thanks," he said pulling his phone out his pocket and quickly checking his messages under the desk. There was nothing from his friend Kenny. Usually they communicated during boring classes, especially during maths. Kenny was a year ahead of him so he and Anders never had any classes together, which totally sucked.

On his left he saw one of his classmates had fallen asleep and was drooling all over the table. Up the back of the classroom Paul Black, the resident bully in the class, was throwing bits of rolled up paper at people. Pretty much everyone else in the class was paying no attention to Mr Shaun's annoying drawled voice talking on and on about algebra. Except for Naomi, the weird Italian kid who actually cares about school.

Anders leaned back in his chair and managed to process a sentence of Mr Shaun's maths rambling. "Now to find out x we must first..." Yeah this was definitely the most boring class of the day. What was the point of algebra anyway, when would you need to use it in normal everyday life. Anders only managed to half pay attention to the working out Mr Shaun wrote on the board. When he finished the working out Mr Shaun pointed to it with his forefinger. "So therefore x equals..."

There was silence in the room. Mr Shaun had stopped in the middle of a sentence and now the only sound they could hear was the snoring coming from the sleeping student. Anders grew curious when he looked around the room and saw that Mr Shaun had gone missing. All of the students looked at the whiteboard like they expected Mr Shaun to pop out of it and tell them all what x equalled while brandishing a metre ruler triumphantly. He didn't.

"Where'd the teacher go?" William Davidson, Mallory's twin brother, asked finally breaking the confused silence.

"Do you think he walked out when we weren't watching?" Asher Stott asked turning to his girlfriend Èponine Belford.

"I was paying attention the whole time," Naomi spoke up in her classic Italian accent. "He was just there one minute and gone the next. It was like he just vanished."

"Teacher vanishes in the middle of maths class, because that's totally normal," Èponine said sarcastically.

"It doesn't matter," Anders pointed out. "The teacher's gone. We can do whatever the hell we want."

"No rules!" Asher shouted sounding enthusiastic and throwing his arms up in the response was met with only slight enthusiasm and overall annoyed glances from fellow classmates. They all loved being in the classroom without a teacher usually, but when the teacher vanishes into thin air it gets a bit suspicious. They weren't exactly panicking, but a lot of them were concerned to say the least.

Someone kicked the back of Anders's chair hard and he tilted his head back to see his Lois McKenzie Rye, leaning forward and giving him a questioning look.

Kenzie was the only friend Anders had in the entire class. Looking at her, Anders noticed immediately that she had decided not to wear her school uniform again. Instead she had opted for a pair of black jeans and a tank top. Australia has one of the best education systems in the world, and it was the opinion of all kids that it would be better if the uniforms weren't compulsory.

Leighton High School's uniform consists of white polo shirts with the school emblem embedded on the left side of the chest, black pants for the boys and red checkered skirts for the girls. Most of the boys had nothing against the uniform, but the girls clearly had big issues with it. The skirts are meant to reach the girl's knees; instead the girls have them rolled and hemmed so short that they can't even bend over.

Most of the girls protest against the uniforms in minor ways, Kenzie just doesn't wear the uniform at all. Kenzie is just one of those people that do whatever they want. After a while the teachers got used to her stubborn ways and have given up on arguing with her.

"Do you wanna go check the other classes?" she asked him with a smirk.

"Sweetheart it's like you read my mind," Anders said jokingly as he slipped his phone out of his pocket and stood up. Kenzie slid out of her chair and started moving towards the door.

Anders began following her but something hard hit the back of his head as he walked away. It felt like a scrunched up piece of paper, a scrunched up piece of paper made of concrete. Sure enough when he turned he saw Paul glaring at him. There was only one guy that could throw paper with the force of a slave driver.

"Where are you going Munchkin?"

Anders was not short. His nickname had not been given to him because he reached people's knees. In fact he was one of the tallest kids in the class. Anders received his nickname when people heard a history teacher call out his last name while marking the role. Apparently it's not that big a jump from Minkin to Munchkin. It seemed that local bullies were running out of insults at the time and for some weird reason Munchkin had stuck.

"Checking the other classes," Anders replied.

"Well if there aren't any adults around be sure to grab me some food from the canteen."

"Why don't you get off your fat ass and stop being a controlling dick for once," Kenzie walked forward and tugged on Anders shoulder. "Come on Andy, we don't need to listen to anyone with the brain of a Triceratops."

"Are you calling me a dinosaur?" Paul demanded as Anders opened the door.

"Nope," Kenzie called back as they walked out of the room. "I'm calling you stupid."

Kenzie slammed the door behind her before Paul could even get a word in. They walked down the halls, occasionally checking the classrooms. There was a problem in the classrooms though.

"Where did everyone go?" Anders asked as he looked into the fourth empty classroom. Inside were desks with books and pencil cases, but no students or teachers.

"They vanished just like Mr Shaun," Kenzie looked in the classroom across the hallway. She turned back around to face Anders, both of them looked worried now. "What's going on?"

Anders looked up the hallway and saw room C2. He rushed forward. "That's where Kenny's class is," he said as he ran to the door. He pounded on the door.

It was opened by Jade Lake. She had short brown hair, chocolate coloured eyes and she was a little bit chubby, but the good kind of Beyoncé chubby.

"You're Anders right?" She asked him. He nodded and she pointed to the white board behind her. "Butter soap boy is there."

Sure enough, standing in front of the board drawing stupid stuff on the white board, was Anders best friend Kenny O' Shea. Kenzie walked into the room behind Anders and quickly surveyed Kenny's activities with an exasperated look on her face. She walked over and sat on a desk. Anders walked over to Kenny.

"Dude," Anders caught his attention. "Have you even noticed that 98% of your class is missing."

"Actually since there were only 30 of us in the class to begin with, including the teacher, it's more like 93.4% of the class is missing," Jade corrected him.

"Yeah I noticed," Kenny grinned as he added a moustache to his lovely portrait of Mrs Gretchen the English and History teacher. "It's awesome huh?"

"Maybe if everyone in the school except our class and you two hadn't vanished," Kenzie commented.

Jade looked at Kenzie in confusion, sitting up in her seat. "Wait what?" Jade asked. "Then where's the rest of your class?"

"Back in our room," Anders replied. "We left to check the rest of the school but we haven't found anyone else so far."

"Have you found any of the Year 7 classes yet?" Jade demanded sounding close to frantic.

"No why?" Anders looked at her strangely.

"Because I was thinking that maybe this has something to do with age," Jade started explaining really fast. "Kenny and I are the only two people in the class that are 14, everyone else is 15 or older. Did anyone else go missing in your class except the teacher?"

"I don't think so," Kenzie thought for a minute.

"This is not good," Jade frantically shook her hands, it looked vaguely like she was prepared to strangle someone.

"Thanks detective, but we kind of beat you to that surprising plot twist," Kenzie remarked.

The door burst open to reveal a year seven girl. They recognised that she was Clarissa Nielson, a short girl with reddish/brown hair and a childish face decorated with lots of freckles. She was also chubby, but the bad kind of fat person on a treadmill chubby.

"Has your teacher vanished to?" She asked.

"Yeah," Kenny replied putting down the whiteboard marker and finally looking at the situation seriously.

"All of the kids in my year were at a presentation when the adults just vanished," she explained as she walked into the room and stood near Jade.

"Hold up a sec," Anders held up a finger. "Do you guys seriously think that everyone 15 or over just vanished? Into thin air?"

"We'll it sure as hell looks like it," Kenzie commented.

"Kids under 15," Jade repeated murmuring to herself, then she came to a realisation and clicked her fingers at them. "The Primary School! What about the kids there?"

Suddenly the twins from Anders and Kenzie's class, Mallory and William, ran to the door. Mallory was looking frantic and desperate and this of course caused everyone to start freaking out as well.. "You have to come now," she told them. "Something's happening in town."

The group exchanged glances before rushing after the twins.


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hello again my awesome readers. Thanks to all the reviews submitted, you guys are the best. Don't worry if your character wasn't in this chapter because they will all appear shortly. I'm still accepting character submissions, I need some more kids from Combe Valley Grammar if anyone wants to send some in. Anyway on with chapter two. I hope you enjoy it.**

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Anders fell into step beside Mallory and Will as they walked out of the school and headed down the street toward the town. Their pace had slowed from running to fast walking. Kenzie and Kenny walked close to Anders, while Jade and Clarissa followed looking unsure about what was going on.

"My little sister Avery told us that when all the adults disappeared the kids in the Primary School ran out into the town," Mallory explained. "I don't know what going on but she told me that we need to go into the town right away. She ran on ahead with a few of her friends."

"Seriously Mallory what the hell is happening?" Anders asked. "Everyone over 15 has vanished. I don't really think that's normal."

She shook her head. "I have no idea. Honestly all of this just seems like just a bad dream. I'm hoping I wake up in a couple of minutes."

"Mallory!" A voice shouted from ahead of them. They looked down the street and saw Èponine Belford standing at the bottom of the street, clinging onto Asher's arm.

Mallory, William and Anders ran ahead to catch up to her. "What's going on Èponine?" Mallory asked her. "Do you know what's happening?"

"I've got no idea," she replied. "Have you seen Arya or Quinn?"

"No," Mallory said. "But they're probably in town like everyone else."

Asher removed his arm from Èponine's shoulder and looked to Anders and Will. "Something seriously bad is going on guys."

"I think its aliens," Clarissa said as she approached with the rest of the group. Everyone gave her a weird and unconvinced look. So she folded her arms and said in an annoying childish voice. "What else could it be?"

The older kids looked silently at Clarissa unsure of what to say. So Kenzie took over and put a hand on Clarissa's shoulder. "That is the stupidest idea I have ever heard. You are a little freak. Please keep your mouth shut."

Clarissa scowled at Kenzie before shoving her to the side weakly and storming off quickly down the street. They watched her go, half amused and half partially stunned.

"We'll that was mean!" Jade exclaimed looking at Kenzie. "You didn't need to say that. All the adults in the town has disappeared, it's not a big jump to come to the conclusion of aliens. She's probably not that far off."

Kenzie shrugged her shoulders and kept walking ahead, Will, Mallory, Kenny, Jade, Asher, Èponine and Anders saw no other choice than to follow her down into the centre of town. The street sloped down again and they saw the intersection ahead of them. On the corner of the street there was the small cafe and shop called Ingley's.

"Hey look," Kenny pointed at Ingley's. Anders followed his pointed finger and spotted two people standing outside it. "There's more people. Let's go talk to them."

Kenny was already walking forward when Andes recognised their clothing. He grabbed his friends arm and yanked him backwards. "That's a bad idea man. They're CVG kids."

With a closer look they all recognised the green blazers that the two boys were wearing.  
Combe Valley Grammar School was a very exclusive school located on the other side of town, designed specifically for the kids of rich people. The kids had connections to celebrities, politicians and anyone else famous. They were also incredibly stuck up and considered Leighton High to be a school for convict children.

"Come on just keep walking and ignore them," Will said pushing the group forward.

They watched the two boys as they slowly advanced closer. Something glinted metal and shiny glinted against the sun and they heard Mallory gasp. "That's a knife," she whispered, loud enough for them all to hear.

"Just keep walking, just keep walking, just keep walking, walking, walking," Asher sang along badly to the tune of the famous song from Finding Nemo.

The CVG kids saw them coming and started moving. They all clustered together in one frightened huddle with Anders and Kenny leading the group. Anders felt a hand grab his and at first suspected Kenzie, then he remembered that Kenzie didn't get scared that easy. He turned and looked over his shoulder, Jade gave him a small smile.

"Hey!" The first boy moved forward. The second boy made no attempt at all to hide the knife. Anders saw no other choice than to walk over to them. He released Jade's hand and stepped forward, silently letting the two boys know that he was the one to speak for the group. "All the others are waiting at the Bay, hurry up and get down there."

"Who the hell put you in charge," Kenzie shoved Anders aside and stepped forward. "You can't tell us what to do."

The second kid stepped forward with the knife.

Anders put his hands on Kenzie's shoulders and pulled her away from them. "We're going," he told the CVG kids and pushed Kenzie forward.

"What the hell was that?" Kenzie demanded when they were out of earshot.

"They had a knife Kenzie," Anders told her. "Knifes stab people and kill them."

"Do you really think that guy would've had the guts to stab us?" Kenzie sounded sceptical.

"Probably not but I'm not taking any chances," Èponine spoke up. "Besides my brother and sisters are down there so I'm going regardless of whether two idiots with a knife tell me to or not."

"So I guess we're going then," Jade shrugged and they all started walking down the street again.

As they walked into more populated areas of town, past the houses, they saw the mass of destruction played out around them. Cars had crashed into poles and houses, several phone lines had come down and splayed out across the ground. The street was empty aside from the eight teenagers.

It kind of felt a bit like the end of the world, deserted and destroyed. It was like the severity of the entire situation had been played out in front of them. It was depressing. The 25 minute walk to the Bay felt like it took an entire lunar cycle.

The Bay was what everyone called the centre of town, because it was located on the waterfront of Henderson Bay. The centre of town mainly consisted of the town hall, the police station and the fountain in the centre of the square. There were various shops and business as well.

As the group rounded the corner and walked into the square they saw a massive huddle of kids all standing and waiting in the empty space between the two sides of the square. Kids from Combe Valley Grammar stood in front of several buildings watching the crowd of kids from Leighton Primary and Leighton High. Èponine and Asher rushed off immediately to find Èponine's siblings. Mallory and Will walked off as well when they saw their little sister Avery waving to them. That left Anders, Kenny, Kenzie and Jade standing around looking confused.

"Come on let's to up to the front," Anders said. "I want to know what's going on."  
They shoved their way through the crowd, staying close together, in an attempt to get to the front so they could see what was going on. They got to about the middle of the crowd when Kenzie had to start pushing people sideways to make a path. Eventually they were at the very front of the crowd.

Anders saw two CVG kids standing close to the fountain. It was obvious, by the way the other CVG kids looked at them, that these were the kids in charge.

One of them was a very tall boy Anders didn't know, with dark hair and pale skin, the way he stood above everyone else made him look tough and menacing. He wore his green Combe Valley Grammar blazer professionally with a white button up shirt, green tie and black dress pants. It was the regular school uniform for CVG boys.

The other person was a girl around the same age as Anders with long red hair that was tied back into a messy bun, with two strands left loose to hang on either side of her face. She had electric blue eyes that provided a flattering contrast to her pale skin. She was shorter than the other boy, but her frame was long and slender. She wore her Combe Valley Grammar blazer very casually and had left one button at the neck on her white shirt undone. She had tied her green tie very loosely and had rolled her green skirt so that it was just as short as the skirts the girls wore at Leighton high. She was also wearing a pair of black, transparent stockings with a ladder in them. Anders couldn't stop staring at her.

Kenny groaned from beside him. "Not those two," he sighed.

"Who are they?" Anders asked drawing his attention away from the girl.

"Allow me the greatest displeasure of introducing Alan and Katie Ridgeworth," Kenzie motioned to them. "Brother and sister, and also the top dogs at CVG."

Kenny took over the explanation. "Big Alan there may look completely terrifying but he's just the brawn. Katie is the brains behind the whole operation. Trust me when I say, don't get on her bad side."

"I think she's kind of cute," Anders admitted.

"Dude no!" Kenny exclaimed sounding outraged. "I cannot let you think like that man. Katie Ridgeworth is demon spawn. She will take you, spin you around, and then toss you into the depths of eternal humiliation and scorn. She will go to any lengths to get whatever she wants. That girl has no moral lows. She is pure evil disguised as a freaking supermodel."

"Ok, ok, Jesus calm down," Anders put up a hand in defence.

There was movement in front of them as a CVG kid handed a megaphone to Katie. She took it and switched it on. There was too much chattering in the crowd, so Katie jabbed the attention button on the side of the megaphone. An ear splintering siren noise wailed across the crowd causing everyone to stop talking a put their hands to their ears. Katie switched off the siren and put the megaphone to her mouth.

"Attention everyone!" Katie called out, any eye that hadn't been watching Katie beforehand, turned their gazes to her. "As you have quite clearly noticed all the adults have vanished. Well so have all the teenagers aged 15 or over. We don't know why this has happened. But we do know what is happening." She turned around a motioned for someone to come up to her. "This is a very good friend of mine, Mitchell Keefe, he's going to educate us all."

A short boy stepped forward, holding a very large folder. He looked only about 12 with short, nearly combed brown hair and glasses. He was wearing a CVG uniform but looked uncomfortable being called up by Katie. He stood in front of the crowd and put his folder down on the ground.

"Um, hi," he mumbled at the expectant crowd.

Katie rolled her eyes and shoved the megaphone into his hands. "Use the megaphone, sweetheart. It works."

He pressed the button and put it to his mouth. There was a wine of feedback. "Can you all hear me? Ok great. Uh, my name is Mitchell," he introduced himself awkwardly. "Anyway. Um. There's no easy way to say this, but. We are in the FAYZ."

There were confused mummers through the crowd. No one understood what the weird short kid with glasses was talking about. Anders watched Katie roll her eyes and fold her arms across her chest. She gave a pointed look at her brother over her right shoulder and Alan moved forward and shoved Mitchell in the shoulder to get him talking again.

"Ok, uh. About two years ago in California there was this huge thing on the news about a dome that appeared over a town, and all the kids got trapped inside it. Then a year ago the dome collapsed and the kids all got out," Michael explained. "Didn't anyone see that on the news? It was kind of a big thing."

"You know it as the Perdido Beach disaster," Katie said loudly so everyone could hear her.

There were collective gasps of realisation in the crowd as people remembered something they had all followed for an entire year. A dome appearing out of nowhere tended to catch people's attention. It made the UFO freaks go nuts and caused a religious riot in Texas. It was kind of old news now. It had all blown over.

Everyone went silent again as Katie put two fingers to her lips and let out a high pitched whistle. She spread her arm out towards the crowd as sign for Mitchell to keep talking.

"Well I think that's what happening here," Mitchell stated. "We're trapped, inside a dome, and all the people age 15 and over have been zapped out outside of the FAYZ. FAYZ stands for Fallout Alley Youth Zone, it was what the kids in Perdido Beach called the dome that separated them from the outside world for a year."

"You can shut up now Mitchell," Katie told him.

He gave the crowd an awkward smile and picked up his folder, walking away to stand behind Alan where no one could see him. Katie held out her palm and someone gave her the microphone. She steeped out in front again to address the crowd.

"If anyone wants any more information on the Perdido Beach Disaster, consulting hours for Mitchell are between 12 and 3 PM every Monday and Wednesday afternoon," Katie informed them. "Now I think it's time to get down to the real business here."

She paused and scanned the crowd in front of her thoughtfully. "I'm going to need to lay down a few new town rules in light of our current situation. Firstly, I'm in charge. If anyone wants to challenge that, then they can take it up with my brother because I don't have time to listen to your childish complaining," Alana cracked his knuckles to prove a point. Katie waited for a moment to see if anyone wanted to protest. No one did.

"Well that makes things a lot easier," Katie said brightly. "Secondly, we're going to have issues with food. Since we're cut off from the outside world, electricity has turned itself off, which means refrigerators have died. So I want you all to go back home and eat the food out of your own house before you come crying to me like Oliver Twist asking for more. I've got people watching all the food stores in town so if anyone tries anything, they will suffer the severe consequences. I will be handing out food rations for you so don't worry."

No one sounded happy about this at all. Everyone in the crowd turned to their friends and started whispering and talking. Anders looked to Kenny who was mouthing the words, _"I told you she was evil"._

"Thirdly," Katie caught their attention again. "After I've finished having my chat with you, we're all going to line up outside the town hall in an orderly fashion. Then you're going to put your name and age down on a list. No muss, no fuss. I'm just making sure how many people we need to deal with. So if you would all cooperate, that would be fantastic."

She smiled at the crowd in front of her. She turned over her shoulder to look at her brother, then she looked back at the crowd. "I think that's all we need to talk about for now. Living arrangements will be dealt with soon. If anyone wants to have a chat with me this square will be my base of operations," she told them all ticking things off on her fingers. "Now I'm going to hand you over to the capable hands of my darling brother."  
Katie walked over to her brother and began to have a conversation with him quietly.

Kenny turned to Anders.

"I think Kenny senses a witty remark," Kenzie said way too dramatically, breaking the silence between the two friends. "There's an I told you so coming."

Kenny jabbed Anders in the chest. "I told you so," he said.

"I told you so as well," Kenzie pointed at the both of them. "So I win."

"This isn't a joke Lois, this is serious," Jade said.

"My name is Kenzie, ok, cupcake," Kenzie told her bitterly.

"I am not a cupcake. I am not food!" Jade told her seriously.

Their argument was disrupted as Alan took centre stage with the microphone in hand. "Alright Listen Up!" Alan shouted at them over the megaphone. He was a lot louder than his sister, which was a pretty big achievement. "Get into family groups. Find your brothers and sisters. There will be three lines. When I tell you to. You're going to line up in front of the table that has been positioned in the town hall. If me, or my friends, see any of you, jumping the queue, pushing people out of the way, standing out of line, or walking au before you but your name down. We will punish you quite severely. Now get moving!"


	4. Chapter 3

**Hello again my lovely readers. Thank you all so much for the reviews and all the characters. I have received a huge finalised total of 41 characters from all of you. I think we might've broken some sort of record because I'm putting all 41 characters into my story. Some will have major roles and some will have less frequent appearances but all will be talked of at some point in the story. I however am not a miracle worker and I don't think I'll be able to cope with any more characters so I'm closing the SYOC. I hope you all continue to follow it and send in some more awesome reviews. Anyway one with Chapter 3!**

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"Name and Age?" the girl asked sitting at the desk in front of him, wearing a CVG uniform.

"Anders Minkin," he sighed. "And I'm 14."

After nearly half an hour of waiting in line Anders has finally made his way to the front where three CVG girls sat, taking down everyone's name and age into log books. The girl said nothing more to him and waved him off once she finished writing his name and age down. He moved away, making his way past the three lines and out into the square.

Katie was nowhere to be seen. Alan was in charge of the CVG goon squad, so he could be seen pretty much everywhere, threating people with blunt objects. Rumour has it that Katie had retreated into the police station across the square, which had been declared the new evil lair.

There weren't many people still in the line, and the square was practically empty. Everyone had rushed off to theirs houses to desperately look for family members or to just get away from everything that was happening. People had stopped seeing the whole thing as a joke, now they realised how serious it was.

Anders didn't want to go back to his house by himself, but Kenzie, Jade and Kenny had all left once they'd put their names down. So it looked like it was going to be just him. He didn't live far away from the centre of town anyway. He was a little bit annoyed that his friends had just walked off and left him.

Anders walked around the corner into his street, and he spotted his house. His mum's car was sitting in the driveway, he knew that his dad had already headed out for work before Anders had even gone to school. The main employment for most people in the area was in the very large town an hour away from Leighton that everyone called The City. Anders dad worked over there in an office.

His house was just a one story brick house with a moderately sized backyard. It wasn't a fancy mansion like the houses on the estate, but Anders didn't like fancy stuff anyway. He opened the door and walked inside. It was dark, so he instinctively went to turn on the lights.

"Right," he said to himself as the room remained dark. "No power."

He sighed went to the living room to open up the curtains. The light came in and flooded everything, letting Anders look around properly. There was no one else inside the house except for Anders. This gave the whole place a cold an empty feel, because usually there was always at least two people in the house. His mum was a live-in housewife and his older sister Krissy was a mooch who only left her room to go to parties or meet up with her friends in the city.

He walked down the hallway into his room and found that it had been cleaned yet again by his mother. Typical behaviour, Anders wondered if he was ever going to see her again. He spotted his phone across the room on the windowsill. He picked it up and turned it on. The words _No Signal_ seemed to laugh at him.

"This is amazing," he sighed in annoyance and walked back out into the kitchen. He opened the fridge and was not greeted with much potential opportunity for food. "Spectacular."

There was a crash from behind him and he turned quickly to see what the source of the noise was. Someone had entered the house and knocked over his mother's china cabinet. There was a groan from the floor and Anders looked down and saw Natalia Peterson looking down in shock at the fallen china cabinet while Joel Trevaylen stood a bit behind her glancing at the mess of broken porcelain and glass on the floor.

"Sorry," Natalia apologised in her Swedish accent. "I did not mean to break it."

"That's ok, I've been waiting for the day that thing got smashed," Anders told her. "What are you doing here anyway?"

Joel stepped out of the shadows which looked kind of ominous with most of his face covered by his hoodie. Over the past couple of months Joel had resorted to wearing hoodies because of the fact that he had shaved off all of his hair, leaving him totally bald. It was kind of a strange move on Joel's part, but Anders was never really good friends with him so there could be some reason he didn't know about.

"Jade sent us," Joel told him. "She wants you to come back to The Bay."

"Why?" Anders asked cautiously.

Natalia shrugged her shoulders.

Anders sighed and stepped over the broken china cabinet. "Ok then lets go," he looked down and noticed he was still wearing his school uniform. "Just give me a minute, I'm not wearing this thing."

He ran into his room and quickly found a pair of clean jeans and a white t-shirt. He ran back out to meet Joel and Natalia. The former was looking through his mother's pile of magazines on the coffee table with a fascinated look. Joel was in the shadows again, leaning agains the door frame.

"Jade was really specific about you getting over there fast so we should probably move quick," Joel told him as they walked out of the house. "She used a lot of creative language."

Anders nodded in understanding. "How are you guys doing by the way?" He asked his escort. "This whole thing's a bit crazy isn't it?"

"I still think that I've been drugged and this whole thing is a massive hallucination," Joel answered. "I'm expecting a purple elephant in a top hat to jump out at me any second now."

"Detta är inte bra. En gigantisk kupol runt staden, det är inte ett gott tecken," Natalia started speaking Swedish without even realising. Then she noticed the confused looks of of Anders and Joel and corrected herself. "Giant dome around town, bad sign. Not good."

"So you believe Katie then?" Anders asked. "You think that we're trapped inside a giant snow globe of doom?"

"I don't trust Katie for anything," Joel was obviously one of the many people that did not like her. "But she's telling the truth. I've seen the wall. It doesn't look like there's a gap in it anywhere. I'm still not sure how big it is."

Anders looked down the street and saw the Bay ahead of him. It looked mostly empty, the CVG kids must've finished taking down all the names. Near the fountain he saw the shapes of three people. As he walked closer he recognised Kenny, Jade and Kenzie.

"Thanks Joel," Kenny said when they reached them.

"Not a problem man," Joel replied. "But I think me and Natalia are going back to my place. We don't really want to stick around out here much longer."

"That's cool dude, see you later," Kenny said has the two of them walked away.

"Alright then what's going on?" Anders asked.

"Your girlfriend has had an idea," Kenzie nodded her head at Jade.

"I'm not his girlfriend," Jade said firmly. "But I did have an idea. I was thinking that we could talk to that kid. The one who knows everything about this FAYZ. There's something he knows that we don't and I want to know what it is."

"Ok then," Anders agreed. "Let's go talk to him."

"That's where we seem to have found a problem," Kenny sighed.

"Genius over here who invented the brilliant idea, seems to have forgotten the very important detail of actually getting in there to talk to him. Unless you want to wait until next Monday for the consulting hours?" Kenzie spread an arm in the direction of the police station where two CVG kids stood outside.

"That's why we got you to come over here," Jade shot an annoyed look in Kenzie's direction. "People at CVG know you Anders."

"Don't remind me."

Three months ago Anders, along with four other older students, attended an event held at CVG school to create a, healthy and friendly bond between the two schools. Anders was selected because he had won a public speaking competition a week previous to that. While at CVG he had accidentally gotten into the middle of a fight amongst a Leighton kid and a younger CVG kid. Anders had broken up the fight by knocking out the CVG kid. Since then Anders had become known to all Combe Valley Grammar students.

"So you want the guy that beat up their friend to walk right into their secret base?" Kenzie asked. "Another genius idea. Thank you very much for your input but I'm sorry to tell you but that's the stupidest idea I've ever heard."

"Shut your face," Jade warned, jabbing a finger at Kenzie, who's response was to roll her eyes.

"Alright fine I'll do it," Anders offered. "But I'm pretty sure they won't let us in."

Anders walked towards the police station and of course instantly the two kids guarding the door jumped to attention and stepped in front of the door. Anders stopped in front of them and the taller one looked them all up and down, his eyes falling onto Anders last.

He titled his head to the side and cracked his face into a sly grin. Then he stepped aside, allowing them to walk inside.

Anders looked behind him suspiciously as they walked inside. "That doesn't seem right to me."

"Nothing seems right anymore," Jade murmured.

As they entered the police station a group of students in green blazers immediately locked eyes onto the small group. One of them stood up abruptly and stared Anders down with a furious glare. Anders recognised him after a second. It was the kid he had punched.

He was tall with brown hair and tanned skin. His face was consorted into a mask of pure fury. Clearly he had never gotten over the whole incident.

"Sit down Andrew," a familiar voice scolded him gently from the corner of the room. Katie walked out with her arms folded and directed her attention to the four Leighton kids. Kenny and Jade shrunk behind Anders and Kenzie tightened her jaw.

"But it's him," Andrew hissed with a violent glare in Anders direction. "Anders Minkin. That stupid Leighton kid."

"Sit down!" Katie raised her voice and snapped at him. Everyone jumped backwards and Andrew sat down slowly and slumped into his chair. Katie tucked a strand of hair behind one ear and turned to Anders, smiling sweetly. "What can I do for you?" She asked.

Kenny elbowed him in the back and Anders stepped forward. "We were hoping we could talk to your friend that knows all about the original FAYZ. We wanted to ask him some questions."

Katie's face was blank for a second, and then she turned to look at her fellow CVG students behind her. Then she turned back to Anders. "I think we can manage that. But," she stepped forward and put her face about three inches away from Anders, smiling up at him. "I'll be going with you. I'd hate for poor Mitchell to get intimidated by a group of demanding Leighton kids."

"Don't worry, we're not going to break your pet," Kenzie scowled in Katie's direction.

Katie glanced over and Kenzie and walked over to her. Their height matched almost identically so they stood eye to eye. "And who are you?"

"Lois McKenzie Rye," Kenzie told her.

"Well then Lois let's see here," Katie began circling Kenzie like a hawk. "Long dark hair, green eyes, a superior expression smothered onto your face, sharp and tight features especially around your eyebrows and jaw, a penchant for wearing leather jackets and an odd hint of Roman in your appearance. I'm going to assume you're one of those girls that does her own thing and doesn't take anyone's crap. That's good, I like that. You emit confidence," Katie leaned forward and her expression darkened. "But if I were you I'd watch the attitude before you get yourself hurt."

Kenzie laughed, unmoved by Katie. "You don't scare me princess."

Katie stepped back and smiled, but behind her eyes you could see the pure malice that she struck Kenzie with. She said nothing further to her though and turned to Anders, who had been holding his breath all throughout the verbal sparring.

"I'll take you to Mitchell now," she told them, and began walking ahead of them down the hallway. As they were walking Katie turned around and looked at Jade and Kenny. Then she directed her words at Anders. "I don't believe you've introduced me to the other two members of your group."

"Oh," Anders looked at Jade and Kenny apologetically. "This is Kenny O'Shea and Jade Lake."

"Pleasure to meet you," Katie told them, probably not even meaning it.

She came to a door and opened it, walking inside first. The scrawny kid with glasses that had originally told them about the FAYZ sat at a desk with his black folder open in font of him. When Katie entered he looked up in fear and slammed the folder closed.

"Mitchell darling, I've got visitors for you," she announced. "They're Leighton kids that want to talk to you about the FAYZ."

There were two girls with him as well standing on either side of them. One of them was pretty, with long blonde hair and a vacant day dreamy look about her. The other was slightly small looking with short black hair. Both of them looked about 13.

Katie noticed them just after Anders and rolled her eyes in exasperation. "What are you doing in here?"

"We're talking to our friend," the one with black hair told her.

"Don't be stupid Jackie you don't have any friends," Katie sighed. "Oh and Eliza," Katie turned to the blonde. "After this you and I are going to have a discussion that you're not going to enjoy."

Eliza nodded and looked down at her feet as she walked out of the room with Jackie following. Katie moved and stood directly behind Mitchell who had kept his mouth shut the entire time. Katie poked him in the back to get him to talk.

"Right um hi," Mitchell stuttered. "Uh, what did you want to ask?"

Anders motioned for Jade to step forward which she did. "Well we want to know about the FAYZ and what happened to the kids that were in the first one," Jade said. "We just want to know what's happening basically."

"So you actually believe me?" Mitchell asked straightening his glasses.

"Of course, we all know about the Perdido Beach Disaster," Kenny spoke up for the first time since entering the police station.

"Why wouldn't people believe you?" Anders asked.

"Because this is Australia, and stuff like this just doesn't happen here," Katie answered for him. "We are literally the backside of the entire world aside from Antarctica which is uninhabited anyway. Just keep talking Mitchell."

"Ok, well the dome first appeared two years ago. All of the kids under 15 got trapped inside. That part of it is identical to our experience so far," Mitchell explained looking sideways at Katie who gave him an unusual pointed stare. "It is unknown how it started or what caused it."

"How big is it?" Kenzie asked from where she leaned against the back wall.

"Well the centre of the first dome was directly above the nuclear power station and the diameter was 20 miles," Mitchell opened his folder and pulled out a map with a circle drawn on it. "I managed to pinpoint a part of the wall near the main highway and my school, then I drew a circle exactly 20 miles in diameter from that point of the wall and I calculated roughly where the centre of our FAYZ is. But I have no idea if it's the same size as the original so I could be wrong."

He laid out the map in front of them and they all looked at it, even Kenzie moved off the wall and peered over Kenny's shoulder. The circle ran from the road near CVG and ran all the way past Rosella lookout, jutting out into the ocean and then back around in a circle.

Katie pointed at the centre where Mitchell had drawn a dot. "I know this area, there's nothing there, just bush," she declared.

"Well if I was going to hide something, the bush would be the place I'd put it," Anders stated. "I'll bet you anything there's something out there."

"Why don't we go have a look?" Jade suggested.


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N: Ok my lovelies we are now onto chapter 4. Thanks for all the reviews and the favourites you guys are the best. For this chapter I've introduced some more of your characters and I hope I didn't screw them up. Please continue to read and review and if you have any constructive criticism I would be more than happy to accept. Enjoy. **

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Anders held the map up in front of him as they walked out of the police station and back into the square. Katie had followed them unknowingly and grabbed the map out of Anders hand. He turned around to snatch it back of her but she slid out of his reach and held the map away from him.

"You can't just go running off with this," she told him. "Technically this belongs to me so if you want it we have to come to an agreement."

"It would be safer to deal with the devil," Kenzie spat.

"Alright then have fun getting lost in the bush," Katie began walking away.

"Wait!" Anders called after her and she turned back around. "What do you want Katie?"

Katie bit her lip and thought to herself for a minute, it was obvious that she was stringing them along and she already knew exactly what she was after. "I want to come with you to find whatever the hell is at the centre of this thing. Only then are you going to get your hands on this map."

"No way," Kenzie of course was the first to argue.

Katie ignored her and looked to Anders for an answer. He thought for a minute then sighed. "Alright fine, you can come with us. Welcome aboard Katie."

"Whoa hold on," Jade protested and pulled Anders to the side. "This is crazy," Jade whispered to him. "If she wants to see what's out there and she has the map than she doesn't need us at all. She can go with her own people. She's playing a whole different game here and if we trust her than shit's going to go down."

"I don't trust her but she could be useful," Anders whispered back. "Just go with it."

"Fine, but when it all goes to hell just remember which person told you the flaws in this plan," Jade stepped back and let him walk back over to Katie. "I'm going to find back-up because I know how this is going to end."

"Ok then," Anders said as she walked away.

Katie cleared her throat to get his attention. "So do we have a deal?"

"Unfortunately," Anders sighed as he stared after Jade.

"Excellent, I'll hang onto this map I think," she said. "Meet me by the petrol station on the highway in thirty minutes."

"Hell no, we are not letting you out of our sight," Kenzie protested.

"Kenzie go to the gas station, I'll keep an eye on Katie," Anders told her firmly. "Find Jade as well."

He knew Kenzie was going to chew him out for this and she did. "Yeah nice try hotshot, but you can't boss me around," She scoffed. "I'm staying here with you. Send Boy Wonder on ahead, I'm sure he can handle it. Unless I'm right about him having the mental capacity of a goldfish." The last part she muttered to herself but Anders heard it easily enough.

"Alright then Kenny, I guess you're up," Anders pointed to his best friend.

Kenny saluted. "I'm on it Captain," with that he jogged off to go and find Jade.

Katie smiled in the direction of Anders, purposely ignoring Kenzie. "Ok then currently we've got you, this girl here (Kenzie scowled), your two other friends and me in our little group. I think we might need a bit more man power so let's up the numbers a bit shall we," she marched back towards the police office and Kenzie and Anders had no choice but to follow.

As they entered the police station the CVG kids stood attention and Katie looked over all of them, it looked like she was studying them. Eventually her brow furrowed in confusion. She motioned to her group with her arms spread wide in a questioning manner.

"Where the hell is everyone?" She demanded. "I thought that after we collected the information that we were all supposed to meet back here."

"There were some issues with a few young children we needed to round up," a boy told her. "Your brother took some kids to go and find him."

Katie sighed. "Excellent," she remarked sarcastically. "This complicates things." She looked around the room and pointed at each person muttering to herself. It looked like she was trying to decide which ones to pick. Eventually her finger settled on two boys that stepped forward.

The first one didn't look very strong and had pale blonde hair, pale eyes and pale skin. The guy looked like a ghost, it was kind of creepy. Anders was almost tempted to walk up and try and stick his arm through his chest to make sure he was alive. The guy also had a weird look about him that indicated he wasn't someone to be messed with.

The second one Anders recognised immediately. Tanned skin, tall, brown shaggy hair. It was the kid from before that had gotten exceptionally pissed off when Anders had walked into the room. Now he was looking very devious and smug which only indicated bad things.

"I believe you already know my good friend Andrew Vasquez," she motioned to Andrew. Then she walked over to ghost kid and put a hand on his shoulder. "This here is Jason Darius Camden. Smartest kid in all of Australia if you ask me. Don't let his appearance fool you, trust me his bad side is a place you defienetly don't want to be."

"So Katie, what's the plan?" Andrew asked. It was almost like he was demanding attention. Clearly Andrew did not like to be ignored.

"We will be having a look in the bush for anything that might give us a hint for why this has happened," everyone knew she was talking about the FAYZ when she answered Andrew's question.

"And what exactly gives you the impression that we need to go and look in the bush for answers?" Jason demanded with a bored sigh.

"Mitchell has managed to calculate the spot that the FAYZ is centred over. We think that there's something there so we're going to go look," she replied then pointed at Anders. "This here is Anders Minkin and some random chick. They'll be coming with us, along with a few other members of their little gang."

Kenzie stomped her foot and scowled.

"Now I think it would be best for us to change out of our uniforms into something easier to move in," Katie took off her blazer and threw it to the side. "Remember boys no dinner suits."

Andrew and Jason nodded and then moved off. Katie turned to Anders with a smirk and winked before strutting off as well. Anders decided to sit down amongst the CVG kids that immediately went back to what they were doing before Katie had walked in. Kenzie sat next to him, still pissed off.

Someone put their hand on his shoulder and sat down next to him. It was a tall girl with Mahogany hair that trailed halfway down her back and sharp brown eyes that for some reason looked angry. Her hair was parted to the right and covered most of the right side of her face.

"Hi," Anders gave her a confused look. "Who are you?"

She let her hand drop from his shoulder. "My name's Robyn Winters, but everyone calls me Ice" she introduced herself. "You're Anders right?"

"Yeah, last time I checked," he answered. Kenzie had now noticed the newcomer as well and peered around Ander's back to get a proper look at her.

"I want to come with you," Ice told him very directly. With that tone of voice it as easy to see that she was not asking.

"Yeah, I think you might want to run that by your boss first," Anders looked her up and down again. He knew every single kid at Leighton High and this girl defienetly wasn't one of his classmates. She wasn't wearing a CVG uniform but it was obvious she was a private schooler.

"Katie might have a hold on the rest these idiots but her act hasn't fooled me," Ice hissed. "You need me and whether you or Katie like it or not I am coming. That girl has got something major shoved up her sleeve and I'm trying to make sure that whatever it is, doesn't get us all stuck in some major shit."

"You really want to come?" Kenzie demanded.

"Yes."

"Fine, but if you cross us just once things are going to get very bad for you," Kenzie warned.

"I'm ok with that," Ice's tone of voice sounded challenging. Almost like she was daring Kenzie to try something.

The three teenagers fell into silence after that and Anders really hated being sat between the two girls, acting as the only barrier stopping them from going for each other jugulars like feral cats. There was defienetly unspoken tension between the two girls that Anders picked up straight away. If these two clashed on something Anders imagined it ending very badly.

"Well are you coming or not?" a voice asked from the doorway. Anders looked up and fought back the urge to gasp.

Katie leaned against the doorframe with one hand on her hip. She had changed out of her CVG uniform which Anders was very happy about considering the outfit she had opted for. She wore denim shorts that were halfway up her knee that hugged her figure. Obviously it was stretchy denim because it didn't constrict her leg movements. Moving up from her shorts she wore a black singlet top that also hugged her figure. She wore a button up black and white plaid long sleeved shirt with the buttons undone as a jacket. She had since taken her long red hair out of its messy bun letting it fall loose, framing her face. She was wearing a silver cross and held a pair of sunglasses in one hand.

_Dear lord she made herself cuter in 50 seconds _Anders thought to himself as he tried to pry his eyes away from her.

"Uh Katie she wants to come along," Anders found his voice and pointed at Ice.

Katie's eyes found her and her face morphed into an expression of annoyance. She sighed and rolled her blue eyes dramatically. "Robyn Winters," it became very obvious that Katie knew this girl. "It's so good to see you again. Now, what the hell are you playing at?"

"I'm coming along Katie and you can't stop me," Ice was quick with her words.

"Whatever," she shook her head. "Let's see if you can be useful for once."

"So your highness, shall we be going now?" Ander inquired not wanting a huge bitch fight to erupt.

"One second darling," Katie turned her attention to the boy she had been talking to earlier. "You. Tell my brother that I've gone to look for more information about the dome and that I'm taking Andrew and Jason. Tell him to continue with the plan but don't do anything about the other thing until I get back." He nodded in understanding and Katie half-smiled in approval before turning back around to Anders. "Let's go."

It was a steady walk out of town and up to the highway. They mostly stuck to the roads occasionally cutting across people's yards. They spotted children running around the streets. Some yelled for their mums and dads, some were crying, some were huddling together in terrified huddles. It looked like a scene out of movie Anders had watched once about the Great Depression.

Out of habit Anders looked right and then left before crossing the highway. Leighton's only connection to the rest of the world. It was the only turnoff towards the town. One way in, one way out. It ran past CVG as well, but a lot of the time the more daring CVG kids would walk down the hill from their school into the valley that contained the town.

Kids came from all over the state to go to Combe Valley Grammar school. Pretty much everyone in that school was the child of parents that were dripping with money. Not many actually lived in town, but those that did lived in an area that locals had called "The Estate." An area of housing that contained giant fancy houses with big backyards and pristine pools that cost more than Anders entire house.

The petrol station lay ahead of them and Anders could make out five human figures. Two of them were obviously Andrew and Jason. Anders had trouble making out the other three though. As they got closer Anders recognised them and was happy to see two of them, but his face fell at the sight of the third person.

"This is what you call backup?" Anders demanded pointing at Clarissa.

"I was limited for options," Jade spat back. "And she volunteered."

"Dude think of it this way," Kenny put an arm around him and whispered into his ear. "If we get lost and we start to starve, than we can eat her."

"Are you two done being gay over there? Because in case you hadn't noticed we're having an important discussion here," Katie called them over.

Kenny quickly took his arm off Anders shoulder and stepped about a foot away from him. Anders walked over to stand next to Katie. She and her two CVG bodyguard boys were gathered around a small automatic car that had been abandoned at the petrol station after the adults vanished. She had the map spread out on the roof of the car and they all gathered around in one swarm. Jade seemed to silently question the presence of Ice and Anders gave her a look that meant he'll tell her later.

"This here is us," Katie pointed to the map about where the highway was. Her finger trailed up the map until it reached the dot Mitchell had drawn to mark the centre of the FAYZ. "We need to get to here. This will be our starting point. I'll navigate us in the right direction and hopefully we might be able to find some answers out here."

"How will we know when we reach the centre?" Jade asked.

"Something tells me that we're going to know," Katie answered pulling a compass out of her pocket. "It's important that we stick together and don't wander off. In the original FAYZ there were mutated versions of animals. So just in case we have a run in with anything like that we need to be prepared. There are nine of us and we need to make sure we don't lose anyone."

Anders had no arguments there. He caught Katie watching him questionably and smiled at her. She returned the smile with a devious smirk and turned to Jason and Andrew, pulling them away for a private conversation that Anders wasn't too pleased about.

Jade walked over and faced Ice with her arms folded over her chest, Kenny and Clarissa also flanked her demanding answers. "Everyone this is Ice, Ice meet Jade, Kenny and Clarissa," Anders introduced them. "She's CVG but she's ok."

Kenzie, who had been strangely quiet up until that point, butted in. "That's still unclear."

"Are we ready?" Katie asked. "I thought you were in charge of this party Anders. So come up here and take charge while I navigate."

"Um ok," Anders walked over to her.

The bush lay ahead of them as they put the petrol station behind them. They stopped just before the tree line, facing the small path they would soon be trekking down. He turned to make sure everyone was there and looked at Katie who stood on his left holding the map and compass, now wearing the sunglasses on top of her head.

"Ready?" she asked.

"Ready," he agreed with a nod.

And so they set off into the bush, on their search for answers.


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N: Hello everyone, I'm back with chapter five. First I wanna say thank you so much for all the positive reviews I've gotten. You guys are the best. Secondly some quick info about this chapter. So nine kids head off into the bush to search for answers about the FAYZ. This chapter is more of a filler and gives you a chance to get to know your characters more and a bit of backstory into Katie, who I'm sure you're all dying to know more about. So yes please read and review as always. Quick disclaimer, the only characters I own are my six OC's. Everyone else belongs to the amazing people that have submitted characters. Just to remind you we have a total of 41 submitted characters so wow.**

**Please excuse my ramblings and let's get on with Chapter 5.**

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"Are you sure we're heading in the right direction?" Anders asked Katie as they walked off yet another path and through the long grass. "This seems a bit off track to me."

As they trudged through the bush land Anders and Katie headed the front of their group while Andrew and Jason flanked close to Katie. Kenzie and Ice lingered cautiously behind the two CVG boys and Kenny, Jade and Clarissa brought up the rear.

Katie had a compass in one hand and the map in the other. "The centre of the FAYZ is northwest. That's the direction we're going in, so just keep your trap shut and leave the navigating to me."

"Have faith. I've seen Katie's navigational skills at work, top of the class in geography and more accurate than a GPS," a voice spoke near Anders right ear. He turned and matched the voice to Jason.

"Ok then," Anders was getting a little bit annoyed with them now.

"I don't think we've been properly introduced, except for Katie's short and sweet preview," Jason continued talking even though Anders wanted most of this bush walk to go down in silence. "Name's Jason Darius Camden, but everyone calls me Jace. Except for Katie of course."

"Anders Minkin," he introduced himself glumly.

"Yes I know who you are," he laughed a dry terrifying chuckle that made Anders shiver. "By the way I think you're really stupid showing your face around Drew, he still hasn't gotten over that whole unfortunate incident. Since then we've had to deal with three months of his temper tantrums. I think you owe us one Anders."

"I'll pay you back sometime," he muttered.

"And I will be sure to collect," Jace mused in a light, but still terrifying tone.

Anders walked faster to get ahead of him, abruptly ending the creepy conversation. He wanted to swing back around and walk with his friends but Katie would probably get annoyed and he had a feeling that his friends weren't all that pleased with him at that moment.

"Anders!" Katie had walked far ahead of the group and was standing in between two trees waiting for him.

He jogged ahead to catch up with her and when he reached her she held up the map for him to see. She traced her finger along a dotted line. "This is the border of the national park that cuts into the bush. Most of it is on the other side of the FAYZ but the edge of it just out here. Some kind of conservation area for wombats."

"Why is this important?" Anders asked in confusion.

"Because that's the edge of the national park there," she pointed to a fence on their right that came around in a slight arc, jutting towards them. "It runs up towards the far right corner of the dome." She showed him of the map. "With that I've been able to pinpoint where we are and we're here."

"Cool," Anders remarked - not really meaning it - as she pointed to a spot on the map.

"We're roughly halfway there," she told him. "But at the rate we're travelling I don't think we'll be able to get back to town before dark."

"So?" Anders asked not seeing her point.

"I don't think you understand. The bush is very dangerous in the dark because we can't see where we're going. Someone could fall down a ravine and snap their necks. On top of that we have no supplies and I bet I'm the only person with the foresight and intelligence who actually brought a torch."

"So do you want to head back?" Anders queried.

"If we hurry we might only have to walk in the dark for a little while, I'm willing to take the risk but it's going to be dangerous."

"Then I guess we better hurry," Anders decided.

Katie nodded and looked back at the group who had stopped and were watching them curiously. "Come on guys let's pick up the pace!" She called back. "We're halfway there."

"Oh, we're halfway there. Oh oh, living on a prayer!" Kenny sang from behind them as they began walking again.

Another hour or so of miserable silence hovered over their heads as they continued their hike through the bush land. As they got closer Anders noticed a few times that Katie's head kept perking up unsuspectingly and looking around, almost like she was hearing something. Anders dismissed it the first five times but eventually he decided that six was too many.

"What is it?" he asked as he jogged up to her side.

"Nothing," she shooed him away as he peered over her shoulder at the map. "We're nearly there."

From that point on Katie didn't show immediate signs of hearing things but every once in a while her head would turn sharply to look in a certain direction but each time she would correct herself quickly. Anders allowed himself to drop back to walk with the people that didn't throw death stares at his back. AKA: Drew.

Anders soon realised that he had made a bad decision because he immediately received glares from all of them. Jade was blaming him for the physical exercise she was being forced to do, (even though this whole thing was her idea in the first place), Kenny did not like to be abandoned, Kenzie looked about ready to tear out his throat and Clarissa was absently muttering about something.

"Hi," Anders was unsure of what to say.

Kenzie narrowed her eyes and jabbed him in the chest. "The only reason I am not carving out your guts to make a fur coat is because I want to know what the hell all of this insanity is. So count yourself lucky buddy, because I am just about ready to commit violent murder if you pull one up on me again."

"I haven't pulled anything on you," Anders exclaimed, growing defensive.

"What about your private frolicking sessions with Little Miss She-Devil over there?" Kenny joined the argument and motioned to Katie who was up ahead looking over her map. "If you fly too close to the sun you get burned. Imagine Katie as a giant ball of light. Enchanting at first, but as you get closer and closer your skin melts off your bones and your insides boil."

"She's using you Anders as some kind of sick joke. Once you're not useful or amusing to her anymore she will toss you aside and forget you ever existed," Jade also threw her opinions into the pile. "And her two bodyguards over there? Casper the Creepy Ghost and Mr Anger Management. Not exactly people you want to invite to your sleepover."

"Where's Ice?" Anders ignored the lecture and looked around for any sign of their extra group member. "How long has she been gone for?"

Everyone shrugged in response and Anders sighed dramatically. Clarissa raised a hand and Anders rolled his head around and looked at her with an annoyed expression. "I think I saw her go off there somewhere a couple of minutes ago. She's been coming and going the entire time," Clarissa told him.

"She's been coming back and forth the entire time and you guys didn't even bother to tell me?" Anders demanded. "That sort of thing is something that you should've mentioned a while back."

Another communal shrug was delivered by the group of teenagers.

"Anders!" Katie called from up ahead. "What's going on?"

"Ice has gone off somewhere," Anders told her.

Katie made an irritated face and nodded at Drew. Drew then proceeded to crack his knuckles menacingly and rolled his shoulders as if preparing to a boxing match. Whatever he was about to do he was stopped by Jace who held out an arm in front of him.

"Before you go yanking every tree out of the ground let me just point out that using your eyes for once would be better than brute strength," Jace pointed to his right. "Our wayward friend is over there."

Sure enough through the trees they all saw the faint shape of a girl walking through the bush carefully. Katie walked out in front of the two boys and surveyed the scene for herself. She put two fingers to her lips and whistled sharply. Ice's distant figure moved slightly and paused before making her way back to the group. Within minutes Ice had re-joined them.

"What on Earth were you doing Robyn?" Katie demanded.

"I was scouting ahead. Aren't you the one who said that there could be dangerous things out here?" Ice retaliated with a snarky response that Katie easily picked up on.

Katie raised her eyebrow and rolled her tongue around her mouth. "That may be but I also remember saying that we need to stick together and not wander off specifically because of the bush being dangerous," then she turned to Anders. "Make sure you keep this one close Anders. We can't have her wandering off into the bushes. Bad things happen to little girls that get lost in the bush."

With that Katie walked past Ice with a confident strut in her step and proceeded to continue walking on ahead. Ice turned to Anders and continued walking with the group and he really saw no other choice then to walk beside her, he still kept himself at a safe distance though.

But he still didn't have enough brains to keep his mouth shut though.

"You said earlier that Katie is up to something," Anders started calmly. What Ice had said to him earlier about the CVG ruler seemed to stick in the back of his mind but only just decided to resurface after the brief catfight. "Do you maybe want to elaborate on that?"

Ice looked him up and down before turning her gaze to where Katie walked in front of them. "Katie used to be just a regular Combe Valley stuck-up princess. Only a few people knew her name, she used to follow after all of the popular princess. Then three months ago something changed."

"Three months ago," Anders spoke aloud. "Wasn't that?"

"The day you showed up at our school, yeah," she finished for him. "That day was weird for everyone. While you were prancing around in the hall supporting friendship with our schools, Katie slowly took over. When she showed up at school she was different. She started to step forward and speak up. Within days she was confirmed as the supreme ruler of the entire school. Anyone that went against Katie would be shunned and everyone that followed her was given safety. The school became a warzone."

"Who fought against Katie?" Anders queried knowing full well that there was always two sides in a war.

"The older kids. None of them wanted a kid in year nine ruling the school. They thought because they were older that Katie had no right to put herself above them. She proved them wrong," Ice sucked air between her teeth before continuing. "At first it was just ordinary school fights, verbal sparring a few punches. Then it started to get weird, horror movie weird."

"How can school fights turn into scenes from a horror movie?" Anders asked one of the stupidest questions in history.

Ice kept her patience intact however and didn't reply with sarcasm. "Some kids suddenly broke down screaming about their worst nightmares. One kid got third degree burns from a Bunsen burner. Someone nearly died from hypothermia on a 30C degree day. Just last week a girl was supposed to give a speech in assembly and instead she got up there and tore out her own hair and screamed."

"That's weird," Anders remarked after a pause.

"Super creepy," Ice agreed. "And Katie has to be connected to it somehow. There's no way that sort of thing can be a coincidence. Especially since her competition has vanished into thin air and now Katie has an opportunity to rule an entire town. This is all tied together, I know it."

"I don't know," Anders couldn't seem to make up her mind. "Katie seems ok to me."

After that comment Ice didn't talk to him for the rest of their journey. As they trudged on in silence he glanced back a few times at his friends. Kenzie pointed to her eyes then at him, saying "I'm watching you" silently. Jade scowled at him and when the two girls weren't looking Kenny would give him a sympathetic shoulder shrug and a half smile. Anders almost felt sorry for him if it weren't for the fact that most of the female population within the surrounding area was annoyed with him.

With nothing better to do Anders listened in on a conversation between Jade, Kenzie and Clarissa. (Kenny kept his mouth shut, smart move).

"What do you think we'll find up there?" Anders heard Clarissa ask.

"I'm thinking there might be dead bodies. We should all arm ourselves with shotguns in case zombies rise up and try to eat us," Jade paused and then sounded defensive. "I play too much Walking Dead ok."

Anders smirked, he personally loved gaming as well but Walking Dead wasn't one of his favourites. The gore with exploding zombie heads was excellent though.

"My guess is that there'll be nothing," Kenzie's I couldn't care less voice was unmistakeable. "The only reason I'm out here is because it sounded like fun at the time and if there is anything I'm not missing out on the action. But there won't be anything anyway."

"I think it's where the aliens have landed their spacecraft," Clarissa said.

"Still going on about that UFO crap huh?" Kenzie scoffed. "I hope you've got your tin foil hat ready."

"Let's bet on it," Jade challenged. "I'm betting there will be dead bodies. Kenzie says nothing, and Clarissa reckons it'll be aliens. The winner is paid five dollars each from the both of you."

Anders scoffed and saw that Katie had stopped up on ahead. He jogged up to her and she regarded him with small notice before turning back to her map. Drew and Jace flocked behind them as Katie closely examined the map. After a while of looking at it she showed it to Anders and pointed to the dot.

"We should be close," she told him. "The centre's around here somewhere."

"Well when in doubt head in the direction of the construction site," Anders motioned to where he saw a big yellow forklift and various other pieces of equipment meant for digging scattered around a clearing with several white construction offices that looked like they had been put up within a night.

Katie smirked at him and began leading their group towards the edge of the valley that dipped about a metre or two into the clearing of the construction site. Once she reached the edge Katie's face fell. They smirk seemed to fall right off her face and it was replaced by a mask of horror. Her mouth formed an O shape and she struggled to make words.

They all rushed to see what Katie had spotted and each of their reactions pretty much summed up the situation in a nutshell.

Clarissa screamed, Kenzie swore spectacularly, Kenny vomited with enough force to fire a cannon, Jace was expressionless and even Drew looked shocked for once. All Anders could do was put a hand over his mouth and step back. All of them were too shocked to speak.

All around the construction site there were lifeless bodies scattered around the makeshift construction site. They looked like they had been blown backwards with an incredibly huge force and some bodies had even been blown into parts. An arm dangled from a nearby tree while there was blood splattered on the window of one of the trailers. The whole site was a bloody, gruesome, display of carnage.

The horror filled silence was broken by none other than Jade. "I won!" she exclaimed proudly.


End file.
